The American Song Contest
This week, Steven is joined by the wonderful Dude Points - https://dudepoints.fun/ - to break down one of the biggest letdowns in Eurovision history... The American Song Contest of 2022.
What was it?
Why did it happen?
And why didn't it work?
Join us and find out.
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Transcript
In this week's episode.
Speaker A:Oh say can you see where it all went wrong?
Speaker A:I'm joined by special guest Dude Pois to discuss the first and to date only edition of the American Song Contest.
Speaker A:I'm Stephen Perkins and this is Douzbois.
Speaker A:Hello London, we are ready for your vote.
Speaker A:Hello.
Speaker A:It is Monday, 17th of November and we are back with another brand new episode.
Speaker A:Thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker A:In a moment, Dudpoix will be here to discuss the highs and lows of the American Song Contest.
Speaker A:But first, let's take a look at the headlines from the last fortnight.
Speaker A:You'll remember that in our last episode I mentioned that both Moldova and North Macedonia were in discussions over a potential return to the contest, and we now have updates from both countries.
Speaker A: Moldova will be returning in: Speaker A: January: Speaker A:The broadcaster has also confirmed that the winner of the selection process will receive a prize to support their preparations for Eurovision.
Speaker A: advised against competing in: Speaker A:That said, the broadcaster has stressed that an official decision has not yet been made either way, and they remain in discussions about potentially competing next year.
Speaker A:Meanwhile, there could potentially be a new country joining the field in the not too distant future, as Canada is apparently eyeing a Eurovision debut.
Speaker A:Broadcaster CBC has apparently made a provision in its budget to modernise its mandate and strengthen independence, and it seems that it considers entering Eurovision to be one way of achieving that.
Speaker A:Eurovision Song Contest director Martin Green stated in an interview with the Eurotrip podcast that conversations on Canadian participation are still in the very early stages and would continue.
Speaker A:So watch this space for more information.
Speaker A: t confirmation for Eurovision: Speaker A: eries eight of Love island in: Speaker A:Cyprus narrowly missed out on qualifying for the final in this year's contest, so will Antigone be able to turn their luck around now as the Eurovision Song Contest has evolved and grown larger, expanding its reach not just across Europe but into Asia?
Speaker A: the addition of Australia in: Speaker A:Oceania There have been talks about expanding the franchise with new song contests for other territories.
Speaker A: Contest was discussed back in: Speaker A: ada with a proposed launch in: Speaker A: being broadcast and that was: Speaker A:The asc saw all 50 states along with Washington D.C. and the overseas territories of American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands embarking on a seven week search for the next great American song using a broadly Eurovision adjacent format.
Speaker A:But contest failed to find an audience and did not return for a second season.
Speaker A:So in this week's episode we are going to take a look at the American Song Contest and where it all went wrong.
Speaker A:And as a British person with no hands on experience of the United States, apart from having been on holiday to New York nine years ago, I didn't really feel qualified to do this analysis on my own.
Speaker A:With that in mind, I am delighted to welcome a very special guest to the Port Doudbois of Dudbois Fun.
Speaker A:Welcome.
Speaker B:Thanks very much Stephen.
Speaker B:I am delighted to be here.
Speaker A:We are absolutely thrilled to have you with us.
Speaker A:I'm so, so pleased you agreed to do this with us and I can't wait to chat about the American Song Contest with you.
Speaker B:So I was actually living in the UK when the American Song Contest happened and I got Peacock just to watch the American Song Contest every week because I couldn't wait to see what the great mind of Christer Bjorkman Melfest producer did when he got to my home country.
Speaker B:And it was not great, I was.
Speaker A:Going to say, because let's start with kind of talking about initial reactions to the concept of it because I think I was probably similar to you.
Speaker A:I was quite excited by the idea of the American Song Contest.
Speaker A:I was like brilliant, we're going to get another Eurovision to keep us entertained until actual Eurovision starts.
Speaker A:But I had some kind of reservations about how it was going to work.
Speaker A:Is the concept kind of translatable.
Speaker A:Does the situation of multiple countries across Europe and beyond translate to the US State system?
Speaker A:So what's your take on.
Speaker A:On that?
Speaker B:I think there are two problems with it.
Speaker B:The first is that the geography does not match up.
Speaker B:So my home state is Pennsylvania.
Speaker B:Bri Steves represent.
Speaker B:She came from Philadelphia, which is my hometown.
Speaker B:If you drive eight hours, you get to Pittsburgh, the other major city in the state.
Speaker B:If you drive eight hours across Europe, you're going to cross multiple countries.
Speaker B:So trying to capture a culture by states is much harder in the United States.
Speaker B:And I think looking at that, then it's also thinking regionally.
Speaker B:So, for example, in a state like Texas, where you have Houston, a city that has a lot of immigrants, a city that has a really good tradition of a lot, you know, Beyonce's from Houston.
Speaker B:It has more in connection with New Orleans or with, let's say, Atlanta musically than it does with Dallas, Fort Worth, which is on the other side of the state.
Speaker B:So you're dealing with problems of trying to cover a lot of territory and then also trying to use a artificially imposed geographic system to jam in a lot of culture.
Speaker A:Yeah, I think that was what I was wondering about was kind of how the US Music industry kind of relates kind of state by state.
Speaker A:And you're probably getting a lot of states with very similar musical taste and then certain states where perhaps they don't really have many high profile.
Speaker A:They don't have necessarily a high profile music industry within that state.
Speaker B:Agreed.
Speaker B:And I think it's not like a beauty pageant where you're gonna find beautiful people all across the United States.
Speaker B:So then you're kind of stuck just trying to find good singers.
Speaker B:And you will have good singers in every state.
Speaker B:But it.
Speaker B:What you might find is that they don't necessarily represent the type of music that's popular in that state.
Speaker B:This actually brings me to another point.
Speaker B:So one of the major criticisms of Melfest is that it has been increasingly homogenized and you're not going to get kind of original songs from Melfest.
Speaker B:Everything is kind of sweetened to a point where even acts that are metal like Scarlet get kind of brought back down to a pop base that everybody works from.
Speaker B:And I think the same criticism could be made of the American Song Contest.
Speaker B:The people who were involved with this were a lot of radio artists.
Speaker B:And iheartradio was heavily involved with the jury.
Speaker B:They were involved with some of the marketing behind it.
Speaker B:So you're choosing songs that are radio friendly and.
Speaker B:And that is not necessarily going to get you authenticity.
Speaker B:It's going to get you stuff that has kind of a middle of the road format.
Speaker B:And as a result, you don't come out with many songs that are memorable.
Speaker B:You come out with songs that are great to play while you're driving on your very long commute to work because it's the United States.
Speaker A:Yeah, I mean, I think we'll get to the songs in a moment, but I think one thing I found when I was watching it, I've not seen the entire thing, but I've watched huge chunks of it over the last couple of weeks and I think think there was a lot of good songs in it, but there is quite a lot of songs that just didn't really feel like they stood out for whatever reason.
Speaker B:And it disappointed me because there's so many amazing regional musical traditions in the United States.
Speaker B:So, like Go Go coming out of Washington D.C. or Tejano music coming out of Texas.
Speaker B:And instead you kind of didn't get any of that regional flavor.
Speaker B:You had country, you had Blue Eyed Soul, and then you had people who had a little bit of flair or ethnic flavor.
Speaker B:But it's bad when I think the most memorable song coming out of your song contest, the thing that sounds most modern is Ryan Charles, New Boot Goofin.
Speaker A:Yeah, definitely.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Well, let's talk about the format then, first of all.
Speaker A:So the thing about Eurovision, which I think works in its favor as much as we all obsess about it all year round, is the contest itself is done and dusted in less than a week.
Speaker A:You get Tuesday night, Thursday night, Saturday night, it's done.
Speaker A:This was very different.
Speaker A:This was five initial heats, then two semi finals and then a grand final.
Speaker A:So we're talking about seven weeks of Eurovision, one episode a week.
Speaker A:Sorry, seven weeks of the American Song Contest, one show every week.
Speaker A:And it's kind of working in a slightly weird way because we're getting the performances in each one and then at the end of each one we're getting the jury winner.
Speaker A:And then, of course, because America has so many scattered time zones, the voting is taking place later on after the show and we find out the results at the beginning of the next one.
Speaker A:Which just feels to me like the tension's kind of dissipating by the time you get to the start of next week's episode.
Speaker B:I completely agree.
Speaker B:And I think one of the challenges in this is that you're trying to hold a national final and Eurovision at the same time.
Speaker B:So this isn't a situation like Lithuania where you know, you're building up with a Eurovizage over six weeks on a Saturday night, and then there's that gap before somebody goes to Eurovision.
Speaker B:It's happening on a Monday night, first of all, on NBC.
Speaker B:I don't.
Speaker B:I don't know what people are watching on Monday nights, but it's happening on a Monday night.
Speaker B:And the other thing with the format is that they're introducing the acts at the same time as they're introducing the songs.
Speaker B:And Americans aren't used to having a great song be enough.
Speaker B:So I.
Speaker B:We're used to kind of a reality show format where everybody has a sob story, so we have to have a little intro to everybody where they kind of talk about how this would Change their life, etc.
Speaker B:Etc.
Speaker B:And then we go into the song, so it kind of drags it down as well and makes everything last much longer than it should.
Speaker B:Especially for somebody like Christopher, who's used to doing a mel fest, like 90 minutes bish bash bosh, you're out the door.
Speaker B:So I found it quite draggy.
Speaker B:And again, without songs that are memorable, by the time next week rolls around you, you can't even remember what the song sounded like that.
Speaker B:That won or didn't win.
Speaker A:Yeah, I mean, I think for me watching it, it felt quite like they were.
Speaker A:Couldn't make up their minds if they were being Eurovision or if they were being American Idol, because there was this kind of.
Speaker A:Like, each song has this intro and it's this person talking about their state and they're telling us all these facts about their state and all of the stereotypes about their state.
Speaker A:And I'm sort of sat there thinking, I don't know how much we really need this.
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker A:Again, I say this as a British person, but I don't know how much Americans need the states explaining to each other.
Speaker A:And it felt like maybe this was slightly performative, like, we need to make this feel like it is a state contest and this is how we're going to do it, by saying, actually, my state is this, despite everything you've heard.
Speaker A:But we also have this issue where, with Eurovision, although it may feel like a long show, it is very slick, it works very quickly.
Speaker A:You get your postcard, your song, another postcard, another song, another postcard, another song.
Speaker A:And you occasionally get the presenters coming back in because there's an ad break or there's a little bit of time to film what the staging is set up with this.
Speaker A:It was a long intro in the studio, a long postcard, then the song, some chat in the studio and then a bit more chat in the studio and then another postcard.
Speaker A:And it just felt like there was so much padding in the shows.
Speaker B:Agreed.
Speaker B:And there were 56 songs overall.
Speaker B:So we worked down to a final, which was 10 songs.
Speaker B:And even that felt much draggier than a Eurovision final of 26 songs.
Speaker B:But again, it's because it was more of a commercial experience.
Speaker B:You have to get in, you know, hey, here's our, like, Tostitos ad break, here's our iHeartradio competition winner, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker B:And part of that is a lot of the shows that we watch have advertisements, but they'll have them very sparingly or they'll push them all to the end.
Speaker B:And that is not what's happening with the American Song Contest.
Speaker A:Yeah, I think as well, in terms of the presentation of it, I mean, we've got hosting, we've got Kelly Clarkson and Snoop Dogg, which is kind of like, I love them as an oddball combination of putting these two people together.
Speaker A:It sort of works because I think what, what, what does work in its favour is that they are both incredibly sincere about the format.
Speaker A:They believe in it, they want this to work.
Speaker A:But when you look at the studio it's in, it's in such a small studio, it feels.
Speaker A:So I was watching this.
Speaker A:Feels like it's like a nightclub in Reading is where they are making this show.
Speaker A:And then they would do occasional, like wide shots of the audience and the audience is at like half capacity.
Speaker A:And I'm like, this is not getting me excited about this, this major event.
Speaker B:And then when they do do crowd shots, I like one of the things which, which I didn't realize it was annoying until earlier today during the final, they would go to crowd shots of like the supporters and the supporters would have.
Speaker B:Instead of a flag, because nobody knows what anybody's state flag looks like, they would hold up a little banner that said, like, Colorado.
Speaker B:And it was Colorado done in the font and in the branding of the American Song Contest.
Speaker B:So it just looked really cheap, like somebody had given it to them rather than any organic fan effort.
Speaker B:So the whole thing feels very manufactured.
Speaker B:So unlike Eurovision, where you get kind of those, you know, rabid fans, people waving their flags, people waving their scarves.
Speaker B:None of that happens at all here.
Speaker B:It feels very, hey, here's some family members who kind of flew in for the show.
Speaker A:Yeah, I think half the problem was, I think that they were trying to kind of create a Eurovision level event, forgetting the Fact that Eurovision has had 60 odd years of build up to get to this point and it has obsessed fans, it has people who analyze everything and instead they were having to just bring people in for this thing that no one really knew what it was and it was a slightly unproven concept.
Speaker A:So I get that that's probably why they had to have it in a small studio.
Speaker A:But you can't really be both things at once.
Speaker A:And it just felt like it was a very small scale thing pretending to be much larger than it was.
Speaker B:I think I would agree.
Speaker B:And when we talk about a small scale thing pretending to be larger than it was, I think that it's interesting because the audience felt small scale, but the performances felt large scale and they had more.
Speaker B:You know, we have this six person on stage role at Eurovision.
Speaker B:That was not the case here.
Speaker B:So you had graphics, you had pyro, you had tons of people on stage.
Speaker B:But then I often felt like the performers got lost because of that and the lighting was very dark.
Speaker B:So I kept losing the people I should have been paying attention to because so much was happening on stage.
Speaker B:A great example of this is Texas and Grant Kanoki with Mr.
Speaker B:Independent, who has a fabulous song.
Speaker B:He's gone on to do some amazing work since the American Song Contest.
Speaker B:I've seen him perform live in the UK and he's been wonderful.
Speaker B:But in that performance, they kind of threw everything at the wall and I'm just like, let this incredibly talented person be incredibly talented and sing and dance rather than, you know, having people with briefcases do things on stage and kind of have multiple staging concepts which do not work.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So let's talk about the acts then.
Speaker A:Because what was.
Speaker A:I think another interesting thing about it is you had a lot of established names in this contest.
Speaker A:We had Michael Bolton, Jewel, Macy Gray, Cisco, Ryker Lynch.
Speaker A:Even Jordan Smith sort of counts as a winner of the Voice, I think.
Speaker A:So there were people who came into this with an established fan base and interestingly, it didn't go that well for a lot of them.
Speaker A:Like Michael Bolton and Ryker lynch and Jordan Smith all made the final.
Speaker A:Jewel, Macy Gray and Cisco did not even get out of the heats.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:I think Cisco was robbed because up is a.
Speaker B:Legitimately, I really enjoyed Cisco's performance and Cisco's song.
Speaker B:It is legitimately a lot of fun.
Speaker B:And when you watch his performance back, it is one of the few where you can tell this is an artist who has real charisma.
Speaker B:You always know where he is on stage, you always follow him on Stage.
Speaker B:And the song itself is.
Speaker B:It's just.
Speaker B:It's funny.
Speaker B:He talks about how he's from Maryland.
Speaker B:He's representing Maryland.
Speaker B:He talks about how he's from the home of the wire.
Speaker B:It's a way of identifying yourself.
Speaker B:I don't know whether it's a good thing or a bad thing, but I. I really enjoyed Cisco's song.
Speaker B:Out of all of the ringers.
Speaker B:I don't think the ringer concept is a bad one necessarily.
Speaker B:We see it in San Marino where they have the bigs coming into the competition, but I do think that they may be able to bring in a little more experience and a little more record company backing, which can give them an advantage.
Speaker B:Although, as you said, it didn't necessarily.
Speaker B:That might be due to the fact that some of their songs were really bad.
Speaker B:Yeah, Jewel, that was not a good song.
Speaker A:Jewel's song was.
Speaker A:Was terrible.
Speaker A:Macy Gray's performance was terrible.
Speaker A:Macy Gray looked incredibly lost at all times.
Speaker A:Macy Gray, I think, you know, making a small window in between appearances on various iterations of masked singer.
Speaker A:God love her.
Speaker A:But then we also have this showcase, if you like, for up and coming stars.
Speaker A:A great, you know, chance people to make names for themselves.
Speaker A:And there were people who I think did.
Speaker A:Did gain a lot of prominence out of it, as you say.
Speaker A:Grant Knoxy from Texas.
Speaker A:Ryan Charles was Wyoming, I believe.
Speaker A:Was Wyoming.
Speaker B:He was Wyoming, yes.
Speaker A:And of course we had Alexa, the eventual winner from Oklahoma.
Speaker A:So there was a chance for people to kind of come in as fresh faces and use this as a platform.
Speaker B:And again, I think Alexa is a really interesting artist here because she brought a K Pop background and a K Pop song and an existing fan base.
Speaker B:When you look at spoiler alert, the end voting and the amount of public votes that she got, she blew everybody else out of the water.
Speaker B:Now, part of that is because her song was.
Speaker B:And performance was incredibly good.
Speaker B:You could tell she's had years of training.
Speaker B:But also it's because she's doing K Pop, she's doing something which sounds vaguely contemporary.
Speaker B:And if you're kind of marketing this to people who are watching terrestrial television or who you want to be watching terrestrial television, you want to capture younger audience.
Speaker B:And I'm saying this not as a young person, but you want to.
Speaker B:You want to be capturing people.
Speaker B:And usually I get very mad when people start talking like this about Eurovision, but for the American Song Contest, you want to be capturing people who are listening to the music of today.
Speaker B: Michael Bolton, the music of: Speaker A:Yeah, Michael Bolton was an interesting one because I feel like he almost seemed a bit confused as to where he was a lot of the time.
Speaker A:There was that incredible sequence in the final where Kelly Clarkson made him that necklace, the golden necklace with the goat on it, because he's the goat, and he didn't even seem to know what she was talking about.
Speaker B:And, I mean, his song was really cute, but, like, his song would have been really good for a Melfest final.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Let's talk a little bit about the voting structure, because, as I mentioned earlier, we had the.
Speaker A:The juries were able to automatically pick one song to qualify from each heat, and then again, they had the same power in each of the semi finals.
Speaker A:And then the rest of it was actually.
Speaker A:It was a very weird.
Speaker A:Because there was three.
Speaker A:Three spots then for the public to pick, and then two kind of wild card spots at the end of it all, which I think went to, basically the ones that had the most streams out of all the other songs.
Speaker A:So we had these kind of three different scoring systems all going on at the same time.
Speaker B:I was super confused.
Speaker B:And again, when you're looking at the juries, the juries are mostly iHeartradio, like, dominated the juries.
Speaker B:So you mostly radio execs, some music label executives.
Speaker B:I found it super confusing.
Speaker B:I don't.
Speaker B:I don't know about you.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Oh, completely.
Speaker A:And I think coming into it with, you know, from a Eurovision perspective, I had a vague idea of what was going on.
Speaker A:But I think people who did not watch Eurovision, watching this, would have no clue how this is being scored, because it's not.
Speaker A:The concept of how a jury works is not made particularly clear.
Speaker A:I think it was in the semi finals, we had that thing where we kind of, like, get the.
Speaker A:The jury results as we were going along, which was quite confusing.
Speaker A:And everything seemed to change.
Speaker A:And then I remember getting to the final and having the.
Speaker A:They went to the trouble of having, like, a Snoop Dogg explainer video of how the voting works.
Speaker A:And I was still none the wiser by the end of it.
Speaker B:And you had 56 jurors like you.
Speaker B:And so you have, like, one juror per state slash territory, which makes no sense to me.
Speaker B:And then.
Speaker B:And then this is where they group people into regionals to deliver the jury scores.
Speaker B:And I was like, why didn't you group people into regional categories to actually come up with the contest or, you know, have regional heats beforehand or something to make it a more streamlined contest so that you wouldn't then end up with this kind of mess and a Miss the songs in the final kind of felt mismatched.
Speaker A:I think we did, we did.
Speaker A:We did have that slight sort of Eurovision moment where the song.
Speaker A:There were two songs that basically got carried to the final because they won jury votes in their heats and in the semi and then got to the final and kind of flopped a little bit because the public vote wasn't really behind them.
Speaker A:I think it was Washington and Tennessee, I believe they were.
Speaker A:And then we just didn't really have much kind of support for them.
Speaker B:From the public vote, Washington.
Speaker B:Allen Stone from Washington stormed the jury vote.
Speaker B:He was leading the jury vote and it looked like he might win and he definitely came.
Speaker B:He got the jury vote in his semifinal and then he.
Speaker B:In the final, he was taking it all again.
Speaker B:It's another kind of blue eyed soul guy with a 70s vibe.
Speaker B:I didn't mind his song that much.
Speaker B:And then Tyler Braden from Tennessee country song 17, it was his jury qualifier from his semifinal and that came in 10th because I guess you have Jordan Smith with Sparrow, which is covering the same territory.
Speaker B:And I think this is part of the problem.
Speaker B:When you look at the final, you are losing a lot of the songs with anything that was remotely different.
Speaker B:So you have Michael Bolton with a ballad.
Speaker B:You have Chloe Fredericks with sort of a ballad from North Dakota, Grant Kanoki does a pop song.
Speaker B:Alabama, Nico does a love ballad.
Speaker B:Jordan Smith from Kentucky does.
Speaker B:Or sorry, yeah, from Kentucky does a ballad.
Speaker B:Alan Stone does kind of a.
Speaker B:A soulful ballad.
Speaker B:Tennel from American Samoa, mid tempo ballad.
Speaker B:Alexa pop song.
Speaker B:Tyler Braden ballad.
Speaker B:And Riker lynch, whatever that was.
Speaker B:Breaker lynch, you know, from Glee, comes in with this song called Feel the Love, which I absolutely hated.
Speaker B:Nothing against Riker lynch, but like Feel the Love just seemed to be.
Speaker B:It just, it did not appeal to my senses.
Speaker A:Yeah, this was an interesting one because Colorado, I think infamously just did not do well in any of the jury votes, but always did really, really well in the public vote, which sort of sailed it through and then finished second in the end because of its strong public vote.
Speaker A:Despite being like, I think 9th or 10th with the, with the juries.
Speaker B:By the end it was 11th in the jury vote in its semifinal and yet it came in second in the entire contest, which I had completely, like forgotten this song entirely because it's, you know, some guy in a Hawaiian shirt singing a mild calypso maybe.
Speaker B:And I, I can't even describe it.
Speaker B:It just, it's supposed to be laid back and it just makes me angry.
Speaker A:But I think it speaks again to the power of coming in with the existing fan base, doesn't it?
Speaker A:Because I think he was somebody else who kind of had a fairly young skewing fan base who would be voting on TikTok.
Speaker A:Because this was obviously the other voting system was.
Speaker A:I think a large part of the voting was on TikTok.
Speaker A:Somehow I'm not on TikTok.
Speaker A:I don't really know how that works, but.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And the voting system at the end became quite strange because having not done this throughout the rest of the contest, they then grouped, as you said, the jurors into regions to, I believe, as a way of kind of dampening down the power of the jury vote for the final so that the televote, the TikTok vote, whatever you want to call it, would have America's Vote, I think, is what they called it, would have the most power overall, which is what allowed Alexa to, I think, finish fifth or sixth with the juries to storm her way to the victory.
Speaker A:Because she had such an incredibly strong public vote.
Speaker B:It was a huge.
Speaker B:You know, she led Riker lynch from Colorado by more than 200 points in the public vote.
Speaker B:She had 710 points.
Speaker B:So it was a clear win for her in the public vote or.
Speaker B:Sorry, in the jury vote.
Speaker B:I'm just trying to check here.
Speaker B:I've got a table which has it all split, which makes it not easy to check.
Speaker B:So the Lower south loved her.
Speaker B:She came in one from their public vote.
Speaker B:But, yeah, the plain states rated her 10th in their public vote.
Speaker B:So again, this speaks to the different.
Speaker B:Oh, sorry, I'm reading this.
Speaker A:Oh, maybe that was the jury incorrectly.
Speaker B:Yeah, jurors.
Speaker B:The jurors are not ranking her well at all.
Speaker B:The planes gave her 10 points.
Speaker B:Sorry, I'm reading it as.
Speaker B:I'm reading it in a non Eurovision way.
Speaker A:The.
Speaker B:The plane states gave her 10 points and everybody else was.
Speaker B:Frankie, you're like five points, three points, which I. I don't really understand, but everybody was digging Alan stone, who got 612 points from jurors.
Speaker B:Again, if jurors are thinking from a radio perspective, this is what I want people to listen to in a car.
Speaker B:And Alexa is doing a performance which is very visual.
Speaker B:And this is part of the problem.
Speaker B:If you have radio people, they're not getting the Eurovision component, which is.
Speaker B:It's a mix of visuals and song together.
Speaker B:You need that staging and they're just completely discounting that.
Speaker A:Yeah, I think this is the thing with Alexa and Oklahoma is if you drop that performance into Eurovision, that is very competitive performance.
Speaker A:At Eurovision, whoever it's representing, that is a thing that you expect to sail through the semis to finish well in the Grand Final, because, as you say, it's this combination of a song that is a banger.
Speaker A:The staging is on point.
Speaker A:She's an incredibly polished performer.
Speaker A:She finishes each one with a stage dive off the back of some steps, and like in the final, kind of looking at the camera going, oh, I might not do it this time.
Speaker A:No way I'm gonna weeee.
Speaker A:Off I go.
Speaker A:And just.
Speaker A:She's so, so good again.
Speaker A:I think it's very unclear how it all works unless you come to it from a Eurovision perspective, because they suddenly going, alexei, you have 642 points to the public, whatever.
Speaker A:And I'm assuming that kind of has been coordinated across regions of America and calculated that way.
Speaker A:But as a Eurovision watcher, you can sort of go, okay, yeah, I think I can understand how this works.
Speaker A:Comparable to our televote.
Speaker A:I imagine as an American with no working knowledge of the Eurovision Song Contest, you'd be going, okay, but how.
Speaker A:How has this worked?
Speaker B:As an American with some knowledge of the song contest and with some knowledge of the American voting system, it also makes me a little angry because you have the plain states, you know, in the center of the country where they are, basically, it's farmland.
Speaker B:And then you have the Mid Atlantic states where I come from, so you have New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland.
Speaker B:That's a ton of people.
Speaker B:And yet our public vote counts as much as the plain states.
Speaker B:So in Eurovision, somehow this doesn't bother me.
Speaker B:Like, my country's 12 points count as much as another country's 12 points.
Speaker B:But this is bringing up old voting resentments based on, like, proportional representation.
Speaker B:And it bugs me in this context of the American Song Contest, so I think is making it unnecessarily complicated.
Speaker B:Yeah, you.
Speaker B:The whole thing is just kind of ill thought out, and I would love a chance to revamp it in a way where they're making it slightly more equal.
Speaker B:If you have juries that are one state, one vote, then you should kind of try to balance out population centers as well, because otherwise we end up.
Speaker B:And I think this is part of what happened.
Speaker B:You end up with a bunch of very bland songs in the final that don't necessarily represent what Americans are actually listening to on the radio.
Speaker B:That's one of the charges people have against Eurovision, that Eurovision songs are maybe two or three years behind the time.
Speaker B:But I think the case is very much in the American Song Contest.
Speaker B:The songs are not things which people would be streaming again and again after the context, with maybe the exception of Alexa.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:And New Boot goofing for me.
Speaker A:Which I must say really, really grew on me over the course of the contest.
Speaker A:When I first heard it, I was like, oh, this isn't.
Speaker A:I don't really get what the hype is about this one.
Speaker A:By the, like, the third to my head, I was like, okay, you know what?
Speaker A:This is kind of.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker A:It's goofy, it's fun.
Speaker A:I enjoy this song.
Speaker B:And it's.
Speaker B:It's not even a joke entry because, like, all of his music sounds like this.
Speaker B:All of his music is equally just as dumb as New Boot goofing.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:And I think the other part of the American Song Contest that I don't like is that they didn't know what to do with New Boot Goofin.
Speaker B:They were kind of like, is.
Speaker B:Is this song for real?
Speaker B:And they didn't realize it was a song which sounds like a SoundCloud rapper from.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:Maybe not a SoundCloud rapper from today, but a SoundCloud rapper from a few years ago.
Speaker B:But they were like, this.
Speaker B:This song is kind of a joke.
Speaker B:And it's.
Speaker B:It scored horribly with the juries, but it got the redemption vote for the public because the public is like, no, this song is great and this is what we want to see more of.
Speaker B:And they brought Ryan Charles back as a jury spokesperson.
Speaker B:But I. I don't think they quite knew what to do with a song that wasn't a serious ballad or, you know, hear something about my growth or my journey.
Speaker B:It was a song about, I just bought some $500 boots and I love them.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Which is the sort of thing that, you know, in Eurovision, we enjoy that kind of thing.
Speaker A:We have space for that kind of song.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Let's.
Speaker A:Let's bring this on home, then.
Speaker A:We've got a few minutes left.
Speaker A:Let's just talk quickly about what could have.
Speaker A:Where did they go wrong?
Speaker A:What could have been done to improve it?
Speaker A:I think there were some things that they did get right.
Speaker A:I think I enjoyed Kelly and Snoop as presenters.
Speaker A:I particularly enjoyed Snoop rapping over the tension music.
Speaker A:Is it you?
Speaker A:Is it me?
Speaker A:Who could it be?
Speaker A:Who could it be?
Speaker A:And Kelly kind of freestyling over the top of that, which is so goofy, but really, really worked.
Speaker A:So that part of it, I think they did get right, but what could they have done to.
Speaker A:If they had a second go at it?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I do want to stress, like, as much as I did not enjoy many of the songs from the American Song Contest.
Speaker B:I was gutted when it did not return because I wanted to see them bring it back.
Speaker B:I think one thing they could do is think about the regional versus the national and look at how you choose regional artists.
Speaker B:How do you hold heats for regional artists and then bring it to a two semifinals and a final at the national level?
Speaker B:This is what Peacock streaming service is for.
Speaker B:So you don't have to put it on NBC, but you put it on your local NBC, you put it on local affiliates, you set aside some time on a Saturday night to do your heats or you make it a longer show where you do it as a season of American Song Contest and really take the time to get to know the artists where it's maybe an hour week of the American Song Contest culminating in a bigger show rather than trying to jam it all into a Monday night format, which just didn't work when it was trying to be both a national final and a Eurovision at the same time.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And also a little bit like American Idol slash the Voice.
Speaker A:It was kind of trying to be too many things at once, I think, really, wasn't it?
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Well, I think we've covered the American Song Contest.
Speaker A:Suffice to say it is not coming back.
Speaker A:And I believe Alexa didn't even fully get the prize that she was promised because she was meant to be performing at the Billboard Awards and then just kind of got to come on and present an award or something, which kind of sucks.
Speaker B:It makes me sad because, you know, the other thing is I'm always curious what happens to everybody who participates in these and where do they go and what has been the career journey for everybody who wasn't a household name?
Speaker B:So I really want to see.
Speaker B:You know, I'm glad Grant Canoki is touring in Europe, has released new music.
Speaker B:I would encourage everybody to listen to that.
Speaker B:But please listen to some of these artists.
Speaker B:If you liked their song, look them up now because many of them are still making music and support what they're doing.
Speaker A:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker A:And if listening to this episode has piqued your curiosity at all, you can catch the American Song Contest.
Speaker A:It is on YouTube.
Speaker A:It's pretty easy to find.
Speaker A:It's on their official channel.
Speaker A:So you're not breaking any rules by listening to it.
Speaker A:And there is some cool stuff hidden in there amongst a lot of the white boy country soul.
Speaker A:Thank you very much.
Speaker B:So much white boy country soul.
Speaker A:So much white boy country soul.
Speaker A:But that's America for you, I guess.
Speaker A:Thank you so much to dupois for joining us today.
Speaker A:Before we go, do you just want to remind our listeners where they can find your other Eurovision content?
Speaker B:You can find my other Eurovision content on Dudepois Fun.
Speaker B:We have been dormant in the off season but will be coming alive soon, maybe in the upcoming season once Eurovision gets going with national finals.
Speaker B:In the meantime, I am also dudepois Fun on Bluesky.
Speaker A:Fantastic.
Speaker A:And thank you very much for joining us.
Speaker B:Thanks very much Steven.
Speaker A:That is all for this episode.
Speaker A:Thanks again to Dudes Poir for joining us and thank you for listening.
Speaker A:Before I go, a quick reminder to subscribe to Dudes Poirot on your podcast provider if you haven't done so already.
Speaker A:Just to make sure you don't miss any of our upcoming episodes.
Speaker A:And while you're there, if you feel like we're worth it, I would love it if you could leave us a five star review to help us climb up the podcast charts.
Speaker A:All being well, I will be back in two weeks time with a new episode.
Speaker A:So until then, good night Europe and good morning Australia.
